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Review

First time feature writer/director Adam Rapp attempts to give the audience an indy film with a few big names. Ed Harris, Will Ferrell and Zooey Deschanel star in a little drama about depression, dysfunction and discovering love. Reese Holden (Deschanel, Elf, All the Real Girls) an actress on off-off Broadway, is approached by a literary agent who wants her mother’s letters to her father, Don Holden (Harris), both of which were famous authors. She travels back to Michigan in search of said letters worth a hundred grand to her. What she finds is a wigged-out Christian rocker Corbit (Ferrell) and grad student Shelley (Amelia Warner) living in her father’s house while he lives in the garage. You see, Reese’s mother has recently died and Holden is in a deep depression, pounding out a sentence or two, stumbling around the property and being taken care of by Corbit and Shelley. Reese grapples with her own sense of loss and her lack of any meaningful emotional connections between her and her family. On the plus side, photography and editing are above average as is the emotional authenticity that Deschanel brings to Reese. Ferrell provides toned-down comic relief in an otherwise melancholic and depressive atmosphere.

Minuses outweigh the positives slightly. Harris’ portrayal borders on caricature in almost every scene and there is a perceived disconnect between dialogue and delivery in most of the script. At times, the backstory exposition peppered throughout the script, although necessary, tends to drag down the real-time action and lends an air of artifice to the characters. Deschanel seems to be the only actor who fully believes in and realizes her role.